​​Why I Resigned: Meet Tariq Habash, First Biden Appointee to Quit over U.S.-Backed Israeli War on Gaza

As the Biden administration faces mounting public and internal criticism for supporting and arming Israel’s 96-day assault on Gaza, we speak with Tariq Habash, who last week became the first Biden appointee to publicly resign from the government to protest Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. “It was untenable to work for and represent an administration and president that put conditions on my own humanity, that didn’t believe that Palestinian lives were equal to the lives of other people,” says Habash, a Palestinian American Christian who worked as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Education. He details how Biden employees “across the board” are frustrated with the president’s policy on Gaza. “The White House doesn’t even know the level of dissent within its own ranks.”